Alcoa 2015 Annual Report Download - page 7

components for next generation aircraft and
jet engines. These actions resulted in market
share gain from our principal aerospace
materials competitor and winning $10 billion
of aerospace contracts in the twelve months
ending in January 2016.
With the strong organic and inorganic growth
in our aerospace businesses within our
Engineered Products and Solutions group,
we moved our Wheel and Transportation
Products and our Building and Construction
businesses to form a new Transportation
and Construction Solutions group. This
enables a better focus on maximizing our
profi table growth opportunities in all business
segments. Through a strong focus on
innovation and creating customer value, we
have been widening our lead in the wheels
industry. Alcoa is driving the switch from
steel to aluminum wheels by bringing down
operating costs, increasing load capacity,
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
creating a much better wheel appearance.
For fl eet operators and truckers, that is a
hard-to-beat value package. In our building
and construction business, Alcoa’s innovative
architectural systems are helping builders
meet E.U. and U.S. commitments for zero
energy buildings and are driving our business’
expansion into China and the Middle East.
With environmental regulations also impacting
the automotive industry, Alcoa has become a
major driver (and benefi ciary) of one of the
most signifi cant disruptions in the industry’s
history—the aluminum-intensive vehicle.
The commercial success of Ford’s F-150 is
leading a major shift to aluminum by other
automotive manufacturers seeking to lessen
weight and increase fuel effi ciency and
payload. To meet the demand for automotive
aluminum sheet, which is expected to ramp
up to an eleven-fold increase by 2025,
we’ve modernized our plants in Tennessee
and Davenport, Iowa, with state-of-the-art
aluminum sheet production equipment. We
also signed a joint development agreement
with Ford for our Micromill™ process that
dramatically improves the formability and
strength of aluminum sheet while reducing
production time from 20 days to 20 minutes.
With twelve global carmakers in discussions
with Alcoa to evaluate and qualify Alcoa
Micromill® products to improve their
automotive value chain, the commercialization
of this revolutionary technology is well
underway. We are structuring the Micromill
commercialization as a software business,
where Alcoa will grant various levels of
licenses and receive fees from the
respective users.
We are at the forefront of the technology
revolution in manufacturing. In addition to
the Micromill, we are applying disruptive
technologies across the additive manufacturing
spectrum to increase Alcoa’s profi tability and
speed of innovation. In 2015, we accelerated
our 3D printing initiative, enabling us to
upgrade Alcoa plants with the next generation
of 3D printing capability. The project also
creates a commercial opportunity to produce
proprietary and highly sophisticated metal
powders made from titanium, nickel and
aluminum alloys for the high-growth metals-
based additive manufacturing market; these
powders are the “intelligent ink” needed for
3D metal printing.
While applying disruptive technologies and
strategies and working toward the separation,
we have been careful to retain the core Values
that have been Alcoa’s bedrock for 127 years.
Combined with Alcoa’s business success,
those enduring Values have been instrumental
in Alcoa being chosen for the fi fth consecutive
year as Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired
Metals Company.” After our company
separates, those Values will continue to guide
our businesses into the future.
When we announced the separation of
Alcoa in September 2015, we established
a Separation Project Offi ce to manage the
many details required to launch our two
new companies so that our businesses can
stay focused and undistracted on delivering
their 2016 plans. The project offi ce is
also identifying and managing signifi cant
cost savings prior to the separation and
coordinating the identifi cation of the teams
that will lead the two new companies. Our
leaders and employees are stepping up to this
momentous opportunity with the enthusiasm,
energy and engagement that we have seen
from previous generations of Alcoans at other
pivotal moments in Alcoa’s proud history.
On behalf of the Alcoa Board of Directors,
I thank you for your support during a very
eventful 2015. We are committed to maintain
a strong focus on shareholder value in 2016
and to ensure the two new companies are
well prepared to build on that commitment as
they defi ne their bright futures. I am excited
and proud to have the opportunity to deliver
on that future for our shareholders, our
customers and employees.
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Klaus Kleinfeld
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Offi cer